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Confirmed: Tornadoes Hit Downers Grove, Mount Prospect

The storms did extensive damage at Downers Grove South High School. (Credit: CBS)

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (CBS) — If you think a tornado passed through your backyard during the wild storms on Tuesday evening, you might be right.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that two EF-1 tornadoes struck in the Chicago area during the storms. One touched down in Downers Grove, the other in Mount Prospect.

The NWS reports the tornado in Downers Grove took a two-mile southwesterly path from approximately 55th and Main streets to Woodward Avenue near 71st Street. It touched down for about two minutes – from 8:31 p.m. to 8:33 p.m. – and its maximum wind speed was about 90 to 100 mph. Its maximum width was 200 yards.

Right in the path of the tornado was Downers Grove South High School, at 1436 Norfolk St. near 63rd Street and Dunham Road.

CBS 2’s Kris Habermehl reported Wednesday that the campus of the high school sustained major damage. Portable toilets and some grandstands were overturned, and pieces of benches and athletic equipment were strewn around the sports fields. Fences were also flattened and twisted around on the school’s tennis courts.

Not far away, one resident said she could actually hear the tornado outside her home.

“The roof of our house it sounded like there was something on top of it going around, and we just felt things crashing on our roof and on our siding, and we went into the basement,” said Robin Lacine of Downers Grove.

The tornado in Mount Prospect toughed down from 8:48 to 8:50 p.m., and also had winds as high as 90 to 100 mph. It also took a southwest path of about 2.3 miles, from approximately Pine Street just north of Highland Street to Golf Road at approximately WeGo Trail.

Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks said the block where she lives sustained major damage from the storm.

“The very powerful storm – the trees got tangled into the power lines, so it was just an incredible storm that came through,” she said, “and we do understand now that there was some type of ranking in the tornado range.”